RAIN, THE FIA, RED FLAGS AND TYRES ALL INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE AN EXCITING MONACO GP
The Monaco GP in 2022, will go down in history as being an interesting and well watchable race. The race was delayed due to a surprise rain shower, leading to some confusing and at times baffiling decisions from Race Control. Initially the race was delayed to allow the cars to be altered to a wet race set up, then Race Control delayed the start completely, this decision looked more like the Race Director was radar watching rather than track watching, as this delay allowed the incoming rain to arrive and cause the first of two red flags.
The race was finally started behind the safety car, Latifi and Stroll lost the car during the Safety Car period leading to the Williams driver needing a new nose and Stroll suffering a rear puncture. The race didn’t much better for either drivers.
As the track dried Pierre Gasly took the gamble to move to inters, at first this seemed like the wrong choice, but by lap 6 Gasly had the fastest lap of the race, this alerted the pit-wall that the inters seem to be heading to inters.
As usual with changeable conditions it gives us an interesting race. At one point we had cars with full wets other cars with inters and some on slicks.
Ferrari seemed to have made a mistake after bringing in Charles Leclerc on Lap 19 for some inters, however Ferrari pit-wall instructed the race leader, Leclerc to return to the pits, only to change their mind too late, this decision led to Ferrari double stacking with Carlos Sainz. Ferrari could have got away with it, however, the Redbull cars had found some speed on the inters, timing their pit call to perfection, this dropped Leclerc from the lead to fourth. Sergio Perez assumes the lead with Sainz taking second and Verstappen third. The anger and frustration clear on the team radio for Leclerc, with the TV coverage requiring to bleep out a number of colourful words from the Monegasque.
The race was neutralised when the HAAS driver Mick Schumacher lost control of his car slamming into the barrier, splitting the car on impact. A full Safety Car was initially used however with repairs required to the barrier the car was red flagged for the second time today.
KEEP ROLLING…
The race was restarted under a rolling start. The Formula 1 Safety Car leads the grid out before allowing the grid to race. With two laps behind the Safety car completed the race resumed on lap 33. Redbull deciding on the medium tyre while the Ferrari cars going for used hard tyre. Redbull would have been hoping for better pace in the medium in comparison to the Ferrari cars, however this didn’t translate as expected in the race.
Due to the multiple delays the race would end under the clock, with the two hour limit being reached before the allotted 77 laps were reached. This would come as a god send for the Redbull cars, reducing the amount of laps of the less durable medium tyres.
With only 15 minutes left to go in the race, Sergio Perez started to struggle as his medium tyres starting to blister. the top four cars (Ferrari and Redbull) separated by only a couple of seconds.
In what is only possible at Monaco it would seem that Sergio Perez managed to keep his Redbull at the front and take an impressive win in the Redbull and the first time he has taken the top spot in Monaco.
While there will be smiles in the Redbull garage, it will be a very different atmosphere in the Ferrari garage. Charles Leclerc will be asking for an explanation, how did it go so wrong for the Monegasque?